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Schizophreni A Serious And Chronic Illness

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Schizophrenia is a serious and chronic illness, typically characterized by symptoms of

auditory hallucinations and delusions causing immense impairment to all functions of an

individual’s life. The disease is a multifactor risk disorder, with genes and family history posing

a significant risk to development of the disorder (Picchioni & Murray, 2008). Picchioni &

Murray (2008) note, “despite its relatively low incidence (15.2/100 000), the prevalence of

schizophrenia (7.2/ 1000) is relatively high, because it often starts in early adult life and becomes

chronic.” After individuals’ first schizophrenic episode, few are able to return to pre-illness level

of functioning. Neuro-pharmaceutical treatment approaches to …show more content…

An additional benefit of typical antipsychotics is its efficacy in alleviation of symptoms.

Typical antipsychotics due have relative efficacy in reducing many of the hallmark symptoms of

psychosis and schizophrenia (Lee, Wu, Habil, Dyachkova & Lee, 2006). Tandon &

Wolfgangfleischhacker (2005) report that positive symptoms that typical antipsychotics are at

least as effective in reducing compared to the newly reformed atypical antipsychotics include,

“delusional thinking, hallucinatory experiences, and thought disorganization.” The creation of

these first antipsychotics and their ability to control positive symptoms associated with the

disorder most notably allowed the treatment of patients with schizophrenia to move from the

hospital to their own community (Awad & Vorugant,1999).

Perhaps the biggest downfall of typical antipsychotics compared to atypical

antipsychotics is their comparable lacking overall efficacy. It has been reported that, “a third of

acute patients show little or no improvement from standard antipsychotics (Knapp, 1998).”

Typical antipsychotics specifically lack in efficacy in regards to improving negative, cognitive,

and mood symptoms of schizophrenia (Tandon & Wolfgangfleischhacker, 2005). Whereas

atypical antipsychotics report

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